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Hit Comics Vol 1 23
Supporting Characters: * Doc Vaughn * Adversaries: * German spies, two * Japanese spies, three Other Characters: * Locations: * Items: * anti-Lewisite spray Vehicles: * | Writer4_1 = | Penciler4_1 = Vernon Henkel | Inker4_1 = Vernon Henkel | StoryTitle4 = Comet Kelly: "Send us planes..." | Synopsis4 = After shooting down four Japanese bombers, and running out of fuel, Comet Kelly lands on a bumpy road near General McArter's endangered position, bringing along some spare tommy guns to help defend it. A light Japanese tank arrives; Kelly breaks into it, throws out the crew, steals its gas, refuels his plane, evacuates Gen. McArter and flies him to safety. | Appearing4 = Featured Characters: * Douglas "Comet" Kelly Supporting Characters: * Adversaries: * Imperial Japanese soldiers, sailors, and airmen Other Characters: * General McArter Locations: * unnamed island in the Pacific Items: * Vehicles: * P-40 Warhawk | Writer5_1 = Toni Blum | Penciler5_1 = Witmer Williams | Inker5_1 = Witmer Williams | StoryTitle5 = The Red Bee: "Joe Phillips" | Synopsis5 = Rick Raleigh successfully prosecutes Joe Phillips for murder. Phillips's girlfriend bursts out weeping in the courtroom, and later visits him in prison; Joe claims to have been framed by the Gordon gang. Rick investigates, then the Red Bee follows up, bursting into the Gordon gang's hangout (12 Bell St.) and starting a fistfight, and leaving when Gordon starts shooting. He changes back to Raleigh and recruits his friend Mac, an expert lip reader, to spy on Gordon with binoculars, and tell him what's being said. It turns out that Gordon did frame Phillips. Rick changes clothes again and revisits Gordon's place, but this time he gets knocked out, just as the gang is leaving for the airport. These geniuses leave t.R.B. unkilled, untied, and unguarded; he soon rallies up and races to the airport, arriving just as their small single-engine plane is taking off. Red Bee releases Michael, who overtakes and enters the plane, stinging the pilot, who loses control and crashes onto the ground and into a tree. The whole gang is still alive but only one is still conscious, the Red Bee punches him out, then finds some of the stolen money on the plane, so according to him this will be evidence against Gordon. Gordon briefly wakes up and tries to fight but gets punched right back out, then the Red Bee borrows a car from somebody who just happens to pass by right then, and takes the whole gang into town and turns them over to the police. He follows up by getting Joe Phillips released. * The Red Bee is headkonked unconscious with a broken wooden bannister piece, the (at least) 13th concussion of his career. * The D.A. now is blond, and has no mustache. | Appearing5 = Featured Characters: * Supporting Characters: * Michael, the Red Bee's bee * the District Attorney Adversaries: * the Gordon gang * Gordon's private pilot Other Characters: * Joe Phillips * Phillips's girlfriend * Matty, reformed gangster and informant * Mac, Rick's friend, an expert lip-reader Locations: * Items: * Vehicles: * | Writer6_1 = George Brenner | Penciler6_1 = George Brenner | Inker6_1 = George Brenner | StoryTitle6 = Ghost of Flanders: (no title) | Synopsis6 = The Ghost of Flanders flies his antique pursuit plane to the Pacific coast, where a Japanese spy named Toko is planning some mischief at a dance and reception sponsored by the "American Born Japanese Society," to be held on July 6th 1942. Toko has a giant henchman named Grotz, (who looks exactly like the lumbering Haggenschmidt from Hit Comics #20, only with black hair, a mohawk haircut, and a hitler mustache). Grotz really really hates American soldiers. Toko's plan is to serve drugged refreshments at the soiree, leaving many U.S. officers incapacitated the following morning, when some new Japanese attack is scheduled. The Ghost of Flanders finds out about this by absolutely pure luck, meeting a wounded soldier who saw the same thing happen back on December 6th of the prior year, at Pearl Harbor. By story's end, Grotz has gotten beaten up twice, and Toko once, by the Ghost of Flanders, and we never find out what kind of attack is planned, or where. | Appearing6 = Featured Characters: * Supporting Characters: * Adversaries: * Toko * Haggenschmidt * the "American Born Japanese Society" Other Characters: * Locations: * Items: * Vehicles: * Ghost of Flanders' antique biplane | Writer7_1 = Toni Blum | Penciler7_1 = Alex Koda | Inker7_1 = Alex Koda | StoryTitle7 = Captain Flagg, Leatherneck: "Look Westward, America!" | Synopsis7 = Flagg's Marines deploy, in P.T. boats, from the battleship USS Liberty in Takayi Harbor, and sink a large Japanese warship, then are counterattacked by a twin-engine bomber, which destroys the P.T.s. Flagg survives and wades ashore in Japanese territory, fights one infantryman and steals his rifle, finds an arsenal disguised as a rice storage building, and creates a time-delay fire-starter from his binoculars, blowing up the ammo. By very good luck, he finds a secret airbase, with Japanese paratroops embarking onto a transport plane, and by very very good luck, he finds a straggler, jumps him, steals his uniform and chute, and scrambles to board the plane. These paratroops are raiding an American base, and Flagg jumps out right along with them, then on the ground he's able to isolate their commander, take him down, and otherwise cause enough trouble to discombobulate the attack, enabling the outnumbered defending Marines to win the ensuing firefight. The Marines capture the mis-uniformed Flagg who confirms his nationality by reciting the Constitution, then returns to duty aboard the USS Liberty. | Appearing7 = Featured Characters: * Captain Jim Flagg, USMC Supporting Characters: * Adversaries: * Imperial Japanese soldiers, sailors, and airmen Other Characters: * Locations: * Items: * Vehicles: * USS Liberty * PT Boats | Writer9_1 = Fred Guardineer | Penciler9_1 = Fred Guardineer | Inker9_1 = Fred Guardineer | StoryTitle9 = Swordfish: "Wait till the Mikado hears about this sinking!" | Synopsis9 = Caption: "The Swordfish, Ensign Jack Smith's one-man submarine, strikes terror in the hearts of the Japanese, as it rams and smashes their dreadnaughts of death." Admiral Nogooda packs an obsolete warship with a hull full of explosives, to boobytrap the Swordfish, but Smith on that day is experimentally changing tactics, and sinks this thing with an unmotorized torpedo, towed on a cable. The trap partly works, as the sinking ship snarls the cable, dragging the Swordfish toward the bottom, but Smith is able to cut the cable with the propulsion propeller, and escapes. Admiral Nogooda is disgraced, and ultimately performs seppuku. | Appearing9 = Featured Characters: * Ensign Jack Smith Supporting Characters: * Adversaries: * Admiral Nogooda Other Characters: * Locations: * Items: * Vehicles: * The Swordfish | Notes = * Comet Kelly now flies a blue P-40, with a comet insignia. * This issue of Hit Comics also featured: ** Betty Bates, Lady at Law: (no title), by Al Bryant *** Caption: "A routine case involving a change of will throws Betty into a whirlwind of adventures, with murder and the unknown playing the leading roles." ** Bob and Swab: "Swab is unfair to Bob Masters!", by Klaus Nordling ** Strange Twins: (No Title), by Jerry Iger & Alex Blum ** Don Glory: (No Title), by Arthur Peddy | Trivia = | Recommended = | Links = * Hit Comics #23 entire issue * Hit Comics #23 index entry }}